Trek writers original works

[Christopher]

Wait, do british novels really get "translated" to american english? This seems to have way too little gain for that much effort.

Sometimes, yes. As Paris alluded to, the first few Harry Potter novels had their language tweaked for American audiences, but later books' US editions were largely unchanged, because by then it would've been seen as blasphemy to change Rowling's words. (The difference in those US editions was in the cover art, physical formatting, etc.)

 

[James Swallow]

In a US edition does someone have to go through the book and change colour to color and centre to center, etc?

Yup. And sometimes the reverse happens.

Wait, do british novels really get "translated" to american english? This seems to have way too little gain for that much effort.

Indeed. And yet some publishers require those changes (things like "sweater" instead of "cardigan" or "soccer" instead of "football") as a matter of course...

 

[Christopher]

Here's the home page for a list of changes between Harry Potter editions, with links to individual comparisons for the books:

http://www.hp-lexicon.org/about/books/differences.html

There are some British expressions that would most likely be incomprehensible to American children, like "sellotape" for adhesive tape or "revision" for "studying." (I only know that one thanks to Rimmer on Red Dwarf.)

Come to think of it, I remember a US edition of The Restaurant at the End of the Universe where the "Parking cars, what else would one do in a car park?" bit was changed to "in a parking lot?" Oh, yes, and there was that bit in the US version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy talking about the guy who had a theory that disappearing ballpoint pens were secretly migrating to a planet of the ballpoints, and I was very confused when the same sequence in the radio (or LP?) version referred to a planet of the biros instead, because what the hell was a biro? It took me a while to figure it out. And then there's the line about the guy who, after making God disappear in a puff of logic, proved that black was white and got himself killed at the next zebra crossing. The US edition changed it to "pedestrian crossing," which rather ruined the joke. (And once I heard the original version, it took me a while to understand that it wasn't referring to a place where actual zebras were crossing.)

 

[DrCorby]

And then there are those writers who were famous for their original work long before they did Star Trek, like Vonda N. McIntyre or Steven Barnes.

Joe Haldeman (of Forever War fame) wrote Planet of Judgement three years later as part of the Bantam line of novels. And then World Without End two years after that. His older brother, Jack C Haldeman II, wrote Perry's Planet, released in 1980. He authored mostly short stories outside Star Trek, and Wikipedia says he was also a biologist, having a tapeworm named after him. (I had no idea!)

 

[Christopher]

Yeah, the Bantam novelists were an odd mix of established names (James Blish, the Haldemans, Gordon Eklund, David Gerrold) and fanfic authors (Marshak & Culbreath, Kathleen Sky). Notably, they were edited by a very prominent SF author/editor, Frederik Pohl (best known for the Gateway series and for editing Galaxy and If magazines).

 

[DrCorby]

I really enjoy Christopher L. Bennett's Trek novel/las, so perhaps I should give Only Superhuman a go?

I enjoyed it. I've also purchased his "Hub Space" e-book collection of Analog short stories, but I haven't read it yet.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Notably, they were edited by a very prominent SF author/editor, Frederik Pohl

Wow, I had no idea!

 

[Jim Johnson]

I liked Mack's The Calling, Dayton Ward's "Genesis Protocol," and Chris Bennett's digest short stories. Also, Kevin Summers--I loved Man Who Shot John Wilkes Booth.

I have three books in an original weird western series so far, and an urban fantasy trilogy coming out this summer and fall. I'll be previewing the first one at Shore Leave this weekend. Plenty of other projects in the hopper as well.

 

[Corran Horn]

"The Calling" by David Mack was very good - as were the two "Last World War" books by Dayton Ward. I very much enjoy the "Precinct" books by KRAD - Dragon/Unicorn/Goblin/Gryphon, etc...

 

[William Leisner]

Of possible interest to this crowd will be the original ebook novella I put out not long ago, A Dimension of Death, in which Rod Serling teams up with a pre-Star Trek Gene Roddenberry to investigate a murder on the set of The Twilight Zone.

 

[Sto-Vo-Kory]

Of possible interest to this crowd will be the original ebook novella I put out not long ago, A Dimension of Death, in which Rod Serling teams up with a pre-Star Trek Gene Roddenberry to investigate a murder on the set of The Twilight Zone.

Sold!

 

[JD]

I added it to my Amazon wishlist.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Of possible interest to this crowd will be the original ebook novella I put out not long ago, A Dimension of Death, in which Rod Serling teams up with a pre-Star Trek Gene Roddenberry to investigate a murder on the set of The Twilight Zone.

You just got a Kobo sale based on that description alone! (Well, OK, the price helped too... )

 

[Greg Cox]

Speaking of original works, Publishers Weekly just gave a starred review to a new book by Kij Johnson, my co-author on DRAGON'S HONOR.

http://reg.publishersweekly.com/9780765391414

 

[Defcon]

I was in a bit of a rush when I posted my list above, and meant to add links to reviews where available after I posted it, but somehow forgot until now, so here are my reviews (those I could still find, I'm reasonably sure there are at least one or two more floating around somewhere) for some of the books:

@Dayton Ward :
The Last World War


Keith R.A. DeCandido ( @KRAD ) :
Dragon Precinct
Unicorn Precinct
Super City Police Department: The Case of the Claw
Guilt in Innocence: A Tale of the Scattered Earth


Peter David:
The Woad to Wuin

Aaron Rosenberg (S.C.E.):
Birth of the Dread Remora: A Tale of the Scattered Earth
Crossed Paths - A Tale of the Scattered Earth
No Small Bills


David Niall Wilson:
The Second Veil - A Tale of the Scattered Earth

 

[Greg Cox]

Okay, I have to share this: R.S. Belcher, who took the grand prize in a STRANGE NEW WORLDS competition years ago, just got a rave review from The Wall Street Journal for his new highway fantasy novel, The Brotherhood of the Wheel, which (ahem) I happen to have edited.

"Reminiscent of Neil Gaiman's American Gods---sharp, violent and insidiously creepy."

http://www.wsj.com/articles/asphalt-assault-1469210906

 

[Sto-Vo-Kory]

Okay, I have to share this: R.S. Belcher, who took the grand prize in a STRANGE NEW WORLDS competition years ago, just got a rave review from The Wall Street Journal for his new highway fantasy novel, The Brotherhood of the Wheel, which (ahem) I happen to have edited.

"Reminiscent of Neil Gaiman's American Gods---sharp, violent and insidiously creepy."

http://www.wsj.com/articles/asphalt-assault-1469210906

It is well deserved. He's an excellent writer with a crazy imagination.

@Greg Cox : Do you know if Belcher has ever been a member here at the Trekbbs?

 

[Greg Cox]

It is well deserved. He's an excellent writer with a crazy imagination.

@Greg Cox : Do you know if Belcher has ever been a member here at the Trekbbs?

Not that I'm aware of. For the record, though, I just finished editing Rod's next book, THE QUEEN OF SWORDS, which continues the saga of Maude Stapledon from the "Golgotha" books.

 

[Defcon]

Since this thread has died down a bit, I'm wondering if it would be o.k. to broaden it to Trek Writers non-Trek tie-in works?

For me reading the Trek tie-ins lead to read other tie-in works by the authors (and eventually to reading non-Trek tie ins by non-Trek authors).

Tie in series I at least sampled because of Trek authors include Buffy, Supernatural, CSI/CSI: NY, Warehouse 13, Eureka, Doctor Who, Marvel, DC, Sleepy Hollow and Leverage, and I totally plan to get Greg's Librarians novels.

Anyone else her who checked out different tie-in series because they were written by authors you knew and liked from Trek fiction?

 

[Sto-Vo-Kory]

^Absolutely.

Off the top of my head: 24, the 4400, Stargate, and Dungeons & Dragons have all gotten novel sales from me thanks to being written by Treklit authors. The authors that regularly write Star Trek novels seem to develop a sense of what works and what doesn't in a tie-in story and they approach each individual property with a care and respect that many non-Treklit writers apparently lack. It's no accident that the best short story in each of the two X-Files anthologies that've been released so far were both written by Treklit authors (KRAD and Greg Cox).

I've also purchased books from most of the tie-in lines that you mentioned, as well.